False Appetizing

November 13, 2010 — keiiex

Alphaila recently performed a photographic experiment starring food you can buy at 4 in the morning. Fast, that is.

The results are disturbing. Dario D, the blogger/scientist behind the experiment, purchased items from McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Jack in the Box. He juxtaposed a stock image of the item with an image of his own, purchased item, taking care to recreate the lighting and setting of the original picture.

As you can see, at least one fast-food chain failed to recreate the splendor of their advertised gloss.

Dario D made explicit his intention to display the food in the most flattering way possible, though he admitted he did not buy multiples of the same item to garner the best possible rendition of the same product.

It is my contention that this false advertising should be illegal. For one, those Jack in the Box tacos on the left actually look healthy – fresh, full of vegetables, somehow able to stand upright on their narrow spines without toppling over. What you really get is a soggy cardboard nacho failure. Two, false advertising allows companies to up their fast-food prices (why are shitty Whoppers $4?) – if you’re gonna spend 8 bucks on a fast-food meal, well then Jesus, why didn’t you just go someplace nicer.

I understand the convenience aspect of fast food and myself am partial to Taco Bell burritos in a time/energy crunch. However, food is more sacred than the atrocity pictured above, and we shouldn’t fuddle “convenience” and “quality” together in food advertising. The illusion will only serve to keep another generation poor, starving for health, and paradoxically, overfed.